No Title, 2011
Site specific Installation, Bunkier Sztuki Krakow
According to certain theories, the ancient Hungarian religion was a form of Tengriism. Tengriism is a shamanistic religion, which was common in the early Turkic, Uralic and Mongol communities.
In Hungary the shaman role was filled by the "Táltos", whose soul was thought to be able to travel between the three spheres of the world. For them, these three spheres were: the Upper World, the home of the gods; the Middle World, this is the world we know; and the Under World. A tall tree, called World Tree or Life Tree, stands in the center of the world. Its foliage represents the Upper World, the Middle World is located at its trunk, and the Under World can be found around its roots. Climbing up the "shaman ladder" (i.e. "Shaman Tree") symbolises the flying to different spheres. The project, that takes into consideration this theory and the structure of the bunker, was planned specifically for the Bunkier Sztuki.
A bunker is always an extremely safe structure but at the same time it is also a place which is completely isolated from the rest of the world. I imagined hundreds of people corralled together in this structure for a long time. In this case, it is easy to suppose that a kind of community forms and then a certain hierarchy takes shape. If I was in this situation I would try to make myself useful as an artist / as a shaman: I would try to liberate the people, to get them out of this isolation with the help of the magic or the magic of the art.
Artists often ask themselves how they can be useful today for society. I believe that our role is to try to liberate the people from their everyday life and show them unknown dimensions. From the beginning of humanity this function was filled by the shamans, but shamans do not exist anymore in Europe, and the structure of these societies have changed. In my opinion, this role should be filled by the artists today.
My aim was to create a site-specific installation, which would serve as a certain secret way of escape from the structure of the Bunker.
